ABSTRACT
Portugal is considered one of the renowned worldwide destinations where tourism makes a significant contribution to its national economy. Gifted with a long coastline, the country has numerous coastal areas that attract different types of tourists. However, seasonality is still a challenge, where institutions and businesses need to adopt approaches to secure year-round tourism activities. With the changing travel demands such as unique experience and diverse destinations, creating initiatives aimed to boost new local economies and promote quality of life among residents can pave tourism growth and development in different areas, especially those located in the peripheral areas, in this case, where ‘sun-sand-sea’ tourism occurs. Tourism in rural coastal areas acknowledges any opportunity in creating new markets and unique co-creating experiences such as heritage, gastronomy, nature, etc. In order to understand the development of studies about the topic “coastal tourism in rural areas”, a bibliographical review was made by analyzing articles from selected books and journals in the SCOPUS database. This chapter concludes that a dearth of literature exists regarding the main themes linking tourism, tourism in coastal zones and rural tourism. Most studies are still recent, and it is believed that this work would ultimately contribute to the existing literature.
